Last updated on March 12th, 2019

Do you ever look at your planner or calendar at the end of the month and wonder… where did your time go? Because let’s be honest… the income doesn’t match up to the hours you’ve invested.

You aren’t the only one and here’s the kicker… it isn’t even your fault.

Yep.

The sad, soggy truth is that no one warns you that when you start your business, you need to keep investing time and oftentimes, money into growing it. Else, you’ll stagnate, your growth will plateau and the competition will climb all over you, like monkeys on a banana tree.

If you’ve been noticing that the hours you’re putting into your business are stacking up dangerously while the dollars that are coming in are pitifully slow…

If you’ve been discovering that you seem to be putting out way too many fires and are hardly fired up when you get to work…

You need to work ON your business instead of merely working IN it.

But what do you work on first?

Do you revamp your website to reflect your new offerings?

Do you create a new product to bring in revenue?

Do you start pitching guest post spots so folks, other than your bewildered parents and weary neighbors, learn about you?

How you decide?

What do you need?

Here’s the answer to ALL these questions: You, my friend, need a marketing plan.

But I can sense that exhausted eyebrow go up… as you consider my answer and you ask yourself, “Do I really need a marketing plan?”

Aren’t marketing plans for stodgy businesses and not free-spirited, creatively-fueled entrepreneurs?

Shouldn’t you only follow your ‘gut’ and do what ‘feels’ right to you when marketing your business?

Wouldn’t having a marketing plan tie you down and hold you back?

No, no and no. 😉

Marketing plans are for everyone, including creative entrepreneurs, like you and me. Especially, creative entrepreneurs like you and me. 😉

Marketing plans allow you to do what feels right while basing your decisions on numbers and trends that well, work.

Marketing plans don’t tie you down at all.

In fact, they free you because you don’t have to run from one task to another and not complete anything at the end of another unproductive day.

Moreover, at the end of the day… it’s your plan. You can test it and tweak it or completely scrap it and start from scratch.

But if marketing plans are so good then why aren’t more entrepreneurs using them?

Because…they fail.

That’s right.

Marketing plans fail and I know it because mine have failed… several times. Yep.

Why Most Marketing Plans Fail Miserably

As someone who thrives on planning and being organized, I have worked my way through a veritable minefield of marketing plans.

Each one blew up in my face because of two simple reason… Too complicated or too generic.

Y’see… the last thing a stressed out entrepreneur needs is to add another item to an already overcrowded plate and then, feel awful about not doing anything with it.

Most marketing plans out there miss one or more crucial components.

Some of them don’t talk about inbound marketing, others don’t factor in relationship building, some of them have SO many elements that I just couldn’t wrap my head around them… and still others were waaaayy too generic – biz vision, values and top 5 goals but no mention of how to accomplish those goals.

The reason most marketing plans get a bad rap is that they don’t lay out the action items an entrepreneur needs to take.

They serve as a description of where an entrepreneur wants to get to but the how-to is painfully lacking.

THAT is probably one of the reasons yours truly did NOT have a marketing plan for the first 2 years of business. #truestory

THAT is also one of the reasons why when we did try out a few of the plans out there {let’s not take names, people}, we failed at sticking with them because there was nothing to anchor us, guide us or motivate us.

It’s like being given a destination and told, “Go on, you figure out how you want to get there!” SO overwhelming!

We needed a map or better still, GPS to see the most effective way of reaching our destination and help us keep our eyes on the road.

What a Solid Success-Boosting Marketing Plan Needs

After a LOT of testing, tweaking and trashing ;), we arrived at a one page plan that works wonderfully for the Type A ISFJ personality that I am and the INTJ personality that Mayank is.

Get access to it by popping in your details below:

This plan outlines the 5 most crucial elements for any entrepreneur:

What: What’s the marketing initiative that you’ll be taking – blogging, email newsletters, social media, outreach, advertising, etc.

Why: Why do you need to take that initiative? How will it help you reach your overarching goals? What’s your story?

How: How are you going to implement it comes next. For instance, if you choose blogging as your initiative because it will help you share your expertise then in this section, you need to answer… how are you going to blog – will they be text posts or videos, will you blog 4 times a month or go the one post a month route.

Where: In this section, you need to nail where your initiative will take place. Using the same blogging example… use this section to narrow down where are you going to blog – on your site, guest posts, on Medium?

Who: If you have a team, even a one-woman team with a VA, in this section you need to note who will be responsible for that initiative. Going back to the blog example, in the Who column, you could have your name for writing the posts and your VA’s name for adding the photos, uploading the post, etc.

Did you notice how I used English grammar’s 5 horsemen to anchor my plan? Makes it SO easy to remember! Yes, I’m smart like that 😉

This marketing plan gives us a broad overview of who we are and how we’ll stand out but most importantly, it tells us exactly what we need to do in order to meet our revenue and brand-building goals.

PLUS, there’s a nifty section right at the top for your overarching goals and since I depend on numbers for motivation {yes, I can be such a baby at times!}, I have a section that includes our current stats and our goal stats for the quarter, mind you!

How to Create Your Own Failproof, Frustration-Free, One-Page Marketing Plan for a Jaw-Droppingly Profitable Quarter

Mayank and I both think in quarters and it’s an approach that our mastermind group encourages as well.

So, we plan our marketing for a quarter at a time because it ensures that it’s doable, doesn’t seem generic or too overwhelming.

So, here’s how YOU can create your own marketing plan and ensure that you work on your business instead of merely in it and as a result, increase your productivity, your profitability and yep, your peace of mind. Because when you have a million random “should dos” drunk dancing in your head, peace of mind is the last thing you’ll enjoy.

Enter those details below to get near-instant access the untroublesome, jargon-free one page marketing plan template for a quarter that’ll leave YOU {and your competition} shocked and awed!

Once you’ve downloaded the template, simply fill in the relevant areas, print it out and put it up in front of you so you can refer to it easily when planning your weekly and daily activities AND have your goals, front-and-center as well.

See?

Marketing can be child’s play, my friend. This FREE one page marketing plan makes it possible.

Now, since I’ve been generous {ahem!} and shared my marketing plan with you… time for you to share with me {What? Sharing is caring, right?!} and tell me…  what is the ONE thing that holds your back from marketing your business regularly? Is it a lack of time? A lack of ideas? A lack of revenue to invest back into the business? A smorgasbord of all three? Something else altogether? Share with me in the comments!